Uh... Duh!

Everywhere you turn these days there is another article about overweight and obesity rates in the United States and in fact now globally as it seems the world has taken on our not so great eating habits.

This is fast becoming a global epidemic. There is no question that cardiovascular diseases kill more people each year in the US than all other diseases combined and while overweight and obesity are not the only causes, they are major contributing factors.

So... when do we finally get it?

When do we stop analyzing the data and start taking action?

I love digg.com. Its a great place to find info on just about anything. Type in "obesity" and three of the top four stories are as follows:

#1 - "Parents Blamed for Childhood Obesity"

#2 - "Desk jobs making more people obese,study finds."

#4 - "Kids Who Lack Self-Control Prone To Obesity Later"

Uh... Duh!!!

I'm not attacking the authors. The articles are all very good and they report valid current issues which are analyzed by studies. But just look at the titles alone without reading any further.

"Parents blamed for childhood obesity." Ya think? Who else is responsible? Aren't they the adults? Aren't they the role models?

"Desk jobs making more people obese, study finds." Really? Who would have ever thought that? Would you have ever guessed that sitting on your butt all day long might have something to do with why its getting so big?

And the last article, just kind of goes without saying.

If you're a parent, let me ask you a question: Where do your young children learn their beliefs, values, habits etc.?

Do we really need another study to tell us that what you do affects what your children do? If you eat junk... your kids eat junk. If you sit on the couch and watch countless hours of mind-numbing television... so do your kids.

If you think a good workout is running to the fridge during the commercial break...

I hope you get the point.

I would love to believe that the day will come when we will all appreciate the value of an active and healthy lifestyle and yet I'm not holding my breath. So, if you won't do it for yourself, how about doing it for your kids?

Everybody says they don't have enough time and still they manage to get in 4 or 5 hours of TV time after work.

I'm not asking you to give up all of your television entertainment but how about a little?

Why not:

Spend a half hour preparing a healthy meal instead of fast food? Healthy doesn't have to be expensive. In fact, I can make a great healthy meal for as little as $2 or $3 per person. You can't eat at the golden arches for that!

After your healthy dinner and before you sit down to veg in front of the tube, take the family out for a 30 minute walk. Did you know that 30 minutes 5 days a week can result in a weight loss of 13 pounds over the course of a year without changing your diet?

Like it or not, good or bad, your kids are learning the habits they'll carry into adulthood from you right now. What do you want them to learn?

Isn't it time once and for all that we finally start to do something instead of just talking about it or writing about it?

We have a choice. Five years from now we can be reading headlines that say: "New study shows more families making healthy choices in the kitchen." or "Obesity rates finally decline as more parents take active role in modeling good habits"

Or

We can have more headlines like the ones I mentioned earlier that just kind of make us all go;

Uh... Duh!!!